The Nigerian Army says it has killed seven suspected Boko Haram terrorists at Garanda village in Borno State, adding that eight soldiers sadly sustained injuries during the clash.

The Deputy Director of Information, Operation Lafiya Dole, Colonel Clement Nwachukwu, said the armed group had on Tuesday eve launched an attack on a military location in the village in Guzamala Local Government Area of the state.

He added that while the troops responded swiftly and repelled the attack, killing seven of the assailants in the encounter, eight soldiers were however injured and had been taken to a military hospital in Maiduguri, the state capital for treatment.

Meanwhile, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) on Thursday said one of its staff was killed at the same location.

The spokesperson for the emergency agency, Mr Sani Datti, confirmed in a statement that John Iliya met his death in Garanda while digging trenches around some liberated communities with NEMA excavators.

Mourning the deceased, the Director-General of NEMA, Mustapha Maihaja, had dispatched a team of officials to Maiduguri to facilitate the return of Iliya’s remains to his family.

Hundreds of residents displaced by the Boko Haram insurgency have voluntarily returned to Gudumbali recently, the local government headquarters of Guzamala.

The trenches are being dug as part of measures to keep insurgents out of the villages.